San Jose vs. SFO
 

Flights into San Jose are about $100 cheaper than flights into SFO. Would the cab fare and traffic offset this savings for 3 people flying in on a Thurs. night? What about car rentals? The drive does seem to be over twice the distance.

As a group you would save $300 by flying into San Jose, right. Cab fare back and forth to SF would eat up more than that amount--SF cabs are authorized to charge something like 1.5 times the meter to drive south of the City (for example It costs something like $120 to take a cab from SFO to Palo Alto, which is nowhere near as far from SF as SJ). Don't recall what if any extra charge SJ cabs are allowed to charge for driving N.

Renting a car should be less than $300, but you will have the issue of parking in SF, which would be an extra expense unless you had planned on having a car in SF regardless of which airport used.

SJ airport is about 45 miles from SF. Thursday night after traffic it will take you 60-70 minutes to drive into downtown SF.

I would guess (no first hand knowledge) that a taxi is $80-$100.

If you were planning on getting a rental car at SFO then a rental car at SJC is probably close to the same cost.

So 60 minutes x 2 (roundtrip) versus $200 savings. That is a decision that you have to make.

I guess if you take taxi back to SJC then it is only a $100 savings

I think the taxi ride would be a lot more than $100 but don't know for sure. It might be worth calling a taxi company to check.

I would check Airport shuttle companies, and doing a one day car rental. What is cost of parking at your hotel. Also there is Caltrain in Santa Clara (there's a free bus #10 from SJC). It just depends how late you are arriving.

Thanks for the info! I guess I'll just plan on flying everyone into SFO. We will need to rent a car, but we will be coming in at 2 different times. My husband & I will be arriving earlier in the day and our children will be arriving late. Maybe we could wait to get a car after we finish in SF, that way we wouldn't need to pay to park it, and we could list our son as a driver.

That sounds reasonable. BART to downtown SF is real easy and just a few bucks per person.

I'm not sure how old your kids are but they might just be able to meet you at your hotel if you are coming in at significantly different times.

Most of the major hotels in the downtown area (Market Street/Union Square/Financial District) charge $30-40 per day to park so that can add up fast.